Budapest's Central Market Hall is the largest and most impressive of the five covered markets built in the 1890s. The building is a beautiful piece of industrial Gothic: red-brick exterior with Zsolnay ceramic tile roofs, a soaring iron-and-glass interior, three floors of stalls stretching back from the Danube. Ground floor is food — produce, meat, pickles, paprika in every grade and quantity. Upper floors are tourist-oriented with embroidery, folk crafts, and a food court running the mezzanine.
The tourist floor is not where you come to eat well; the lángos (fried dough with sour cream and cheese) is fine but overpriced. The real reason to visit is the building itself and the ground floor market. Early weekday mornings, before the tourist coaches arrive, the place functions as a proper neighbourhood market and is at its best. The hall is at the Pest end of Liberty Bridge, easily combined with a walk along the embankment.